Influence of Heat Treatment and Reinforcements on Tensile Characteristics of Aluminium AA 5083/Silicon Carbide/Fly Ash Composites

Santhosh Nagaraja; Ramesha Kodandappa; Khalid Ansari; Mohamed Saheer Kuruniyan; Asif Afzal; Abdul Razak Kaladgi; Navid Aslfattahi; C Ahamed Saleel; Ashwin C Gowda; Praveena Bindiganavile Anand

doi:10.3390/ma14185261

Influence of Heat Treatment and Reinforcements on Tensile Characteristics of Aluminium AA 5083/Silicon Carbide/Fly Ash Composites

Materials (Basel). 2021 Sep 13;14(18):5261. doi: 10.3390/ma14185261.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, MVJ College of Engineering, Near ITPB, Whitefield, Bangalore 560067, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore 560074, India.
³ Department of Civil Engineering, Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur 441110, India.
⁴ Department of Dental Technology, College of Applied Medical Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 394, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, P. A. College of Engineering (Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi), Mangaluru 574153, India.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Technology, Glocal University, Delhi-Yamunotri Marg, SH-57, Mirzapur Pole, Saharanpur 247121, India.
⁷ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
⁸ Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 394, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department Studies of Mechanical Engineering, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Muddenahalli, Chikkaballapura 562103, India.
¹⁰ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore 560064, India.

Abstract

The effect of reinforcements and thermal exposure on the tensile properties of aluminium AA 5083-silicon carbide (SiC)-fly ash composites were studied in the present work. The specimens were fabricated with varying wt.% of fly ash and silicon carbide and subjected to T6 thermal cycle conditions to enhance the properties through "precipitation hardening". The analyses of the microstructure and the elemental distribution were carried out using scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The composite specimens thus subjected to thermal treatment exhibit uniform distribution of the reinforcements, and the energy dispersive spectrum exhibit the presence of Al, Si, Mg, O elements, along with the traces of few other elements. The effects of reinforcements and heat treatment on the tensile properties were investigated through a set of scientifically designed experimental trials. From the investigations, it is observed that the tensile and yield strength increases up to 160 °C, beyond which there is a slight reduction in the tensile and yield strength with an increase in temperature (i.e., 200 °C). Additionally, the % elongation of the composites decreases substantially with the inclusion of the reinforcements and thermal exposure, leading to an increase in stiffness and elastic modulus of the specimens. The improvement in the strength and elastic modulus of the composites is attributed to a number of factors, i.e., the diffusion mechanism, composition of the reinforcements, heat treatment temperatures, and grain refinement. Further, the optimisation studies and ANN modelling validated the experimental outcomes and provided the training models for the test data with the correlation coefficients for interpolating the results for different sets of parameters, thereby facilitating the fabrication of hybrid composite components for various automotive and aerospace applications.

Keywords: AA 5083 alloy; characteristics; composite; composites; denture base; fly ash; heat treatment; sandblasting; silicon carbide; tensile.